LGBTQIA Welcoming & Inclusion

May 20 and 27, and June 3, 2021
6:00-8:00 pm

Via Zoom

This is an event for educating, empowering, and equipping LGBTQIA leaders and advocates to provide radical welcome and fully include LGBTQIA people in the life of our congregations.

Hosted by the Office of the Bishop Formation Team, our guest presenter and facilitator is the Rev. Canon Susan Russell, Canon for Engagement Across Difference, Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles; and Assisting Priest at All Saints Episcopal Church, Pasadena.

Over the course of three weeks we will explore where we’ve been, where we are now, and where we are going in our work to embrace LGBTQIA diversity.

Presentations will be followed by small-group time for deeper conversation. There will be one to two hours of recommended prework between sessions, as well as suggested resources for further discovery and taking next steps in your ministry of LGBTQIA welcoming and inclusion.

A note from the Rev. Canon Susan Russell:

“Martin Luther King, Jr., famously said that the arc of history is bent toward justice. And the parallel statement that I want to make is that the arc of the Gospel is bent toward inclusiveness.” This 2002 quote by biblical scholar Walter Brueggemann arguably summarizes the Gospel imperative behind the decades long – and still in progress – struggle for the full inclusion of God’s beloved LGBTQIA children in the work and witness of the Episcopal Church. We’ll spend six hours together looking at that work through three lenses: stepping back into our history; sharing a reality check about our present; and casting a vision out into our future.

More about Our Presenter

A life-long Episcopalian and native of Los Angeles, Susan Russell is the Canon for Engagement Across Difference in the Episcopal Diocese of L.A. and is part of the clergy staff at All Saints, Pasadena. A long time activist in LGBTQ and women’s issues, Susan was a founding member of the HRC (Human Rights Campaign) Religion Council, served on the National Clergy Advisory Board for Planned Parenthood and as a member of the Task Force for the Study of Marriage for the Episcopal Church. She currently (2018-2021) co-chairs the national Task Force for Communion Across Difference for the Episcopal Church. She and her wife Lori share four grown children between them and are the proud grandmas of first grandchild Hayes Anthony. They also share a love of animals (three dogs and three cats), theater, music, and baseball.

If you have questions or need assistance in accessing the resources on this webpage, please contact the Rev. Canon Greg Foraker, 720.677.9010 or Tracy Methe,  720.677.9016.

Resources will be added here throughout the weeks of the series.